That was his first mistake. If Emerzian had a computer, he might not have made that call.

Google “1st United Consultants,” and among the first results are links to examples of con games run by 1st United Consultants. The name changes — in Tucson, it was Smart Solutions Financial Services; the Get Out Of Debt Guy consumer blog, it was 1st United Consultants again — but the game’s the same.

Victims never meet with the scammers in person. All conversations are over the phone or via email. The scammer promises the victim a lower interest rate, and directs the victim to send the recalculated mortgage checks to the scammer via direct deposit. No addresses involved.

Meanwhile, the original mortgage company, missing its monthly payments, starts the foreclosure process. By the time the victim finds out that he’s been conned, it might be too late to save his house. Taking legal action is impossible because the company has vanished, with no working phone number, and no record of its physical existence.

Other scams currently popular:

Furnace inspectors who work door-to-door and ask to see your furnace, and find expensive (nonexistent) problems, including cracks and blockages;

check-transfer scams that promise victims a percentage of a five-figure money order or cashier’s check if the victims will deposit the check and then send that money, minus the finder’s fee, to the scammers.

Reports of fake websites and Twitter accounts seeking donations to help the victims of the Boston Marathon explosions surfaced within hours of the tragedy. As with any such disaster, many of us are moved to open our hearts and wallets to help those people who have suffered terrible loss. Be very cautious about supporting any organization that reaches out to you by email, social media or phone, or any group you’ve never heard of before.

On Tuesday, one day after the Marathon explosions, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino announced the creation of The One Fund Boston, to raise money to help those families most affected by the bombings. The cornerstone donation to the fund is a $1 Million donation from John Hancock, with headquarter offices in Boston for more than 150 years.

Before the events in Boston, a new website was recently created to help donors think about disaster-related philanthropy more strategically. The Center for Disaster Philanthropy offers tools, expert analysis, and strategic one-on-one guidance to maximize the impact of dollars given to disaster preparedness, relief, and recovery. If this is an area of interest to you over the long-term, check out this new resource.

In the meantime, however, the Governor’s and Mayor’s special fund for the Boston Marathon victims appears to be a very safe place to send your donations in the wake of this most recent tragedy.

Connecticut Community Copes With Aftermath Of Elementary School Mass Shooting

All of us are shocked and grief-stricken about the tragic events last Friday in Newton, Connecticut. Now, there’s a place to which you can contribute to support the victims, their families, and the entire community.

The Sandy Hook School Support Fund has been established by the United Way of Western Connecticut.

Click here to donate online or to learn where checks may be sent. This is an important time to support those who have suffered in the wake of this inexplicable and intolerable violence.

People donate to charity for a wide variety of perfectly valid reasons. It turns out, however, that, in a recent survey, when people were asked what activity gives them the most pleasure in life, donating to others in need came in third behind first place “being in love” and second place “hugging my children.”

The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Razoo.com, also found:

A majority (60%) of those who have ever donated to those in need feel hope in that they are making a difference

Nearly half of U.S. adults (48%) feel satisfied after donating

Just under half of U.S. adults (43%) feel good about themselves after donating

Over a quarter of U.S. adults (28%) feel excited after donating

Some U.S. adults (17%) feel frustrated because they wish they could give more

A small group (6%) of U.S. adults feel guilty that they have what others do not

The survey also reported

Almost all (98%) U.S. adults think there are causes that people can relate to and in turn make them more likely to donate to

More than 90% of U.S. adults (94%) have donated money to others

A majority of U.S. adults (67%) think people relate especially to child welfare causes

Nearly half of U.S. adults (49%) think people relate especially to animal causes

Over half of U.S. adults who have ever donated to those in need feel that their giving truly will make a difference, with women (65%) feeling even more so than men (54%)

As the Holiday Season gets into full swing, don’t forget to do the things that will bring you joy and meaning in your life: fall in love, hug your children, and give generously to others in need! Happy Holidays!

More than ever, donors care about the impact their philanthropic investments are having in the world. They’re rightfully demanding demonstrable outcomes so that they know that their charitable dollars are making a real difference.

Now, there’s a new, free resource available to donors to help them find the nonprofit organizations that are having a proven impact on the issues they care about. The S&I 100 is the first-ever broad index of nonprofits that are a) demonstrating high-impact interventions, b) are serving large numbers of people, c) are expanding to serve even more people with their successful programs, and d) have demonstrated impact validated by third-party studies.

The site breaks down the issues so that you can focus on those that interest you the most. The categories of nonprofits are:

There are over 1.5 million charities in the United States. Many of them are doing remarkable work to transform lives, communities and the world. Unfortunately, too many of them do not succeed, and suffer from waste, lack of focus, little impact and sometimes, even dishonesty. As a donor, you want to know that your donation is well spent and that it is actually achieving the change you wish to see.

What can you do before giving away your money? After identifying the causes you wish to support, begin with some basic research. Look at a charity’s website and see if recent, audited financial information is easily found. Further, every nonprofit is required to file an IRS Form 990 that reveals important financial information. Those forms can be obtained directly or are available online at www.guidestar.com and www.nccs.urban.org.

Many donors look at their charitable efforts and wonder: Does the nonprofit I’m supporting really have an impact? What can I do to make my philanthropy more effective? Being an effective philanthropist doesn’t depend on the amount of time or money you give, but rather upon how you approach your giving.

Here are ten steps to philanthropy that makes a difference:

Determine why you’re giving and what outcomes you want to achieve. The reasons individuals give might include compassion, gratitude, tradition, religion, status, peer pressure, tax advantage, guilt, moral duty, ego, reputation, setting an example for or passing values to family, creating a legacy, and more. You may seek to help others in need, find a cure or solution to a problem, advance a cause, or preserve something you believe is valuable.

Develop a strategy to achieve your goals. As with any investment, you must develop a strategy to achieve the desired return. Knowing why you’re giving and what outcomes you want to achieve are the first two building blocks of a philanthropic strategy.

Volunteer your time. Some people have more time than money. Others can contribute both. Volunteering for a charity or cause important to you can help you learn more about the work and achieve even greater impact.

Research before you give. With over 1.4 million nonprofits in the U.S., 500,000 of which were created since 2000, it takes more than a glossy brochure or a snappy website to tell you which ones are achieving real outcomes and which are not. Doing your homework helps you determine which charities are worth your investment of time and money.

Give boldly in your lifetime. People rarely donate so much money or time to charity in their lifetimes that they can no longer take care of themselves or their loved ones. Many have capacity to give far more than they do without sacrificing the quality of their lives or that of their descendents.

Go deep, not wide. Focus your giving and volunteering on fewer charities where you can make a difference rather than spreading them thinly across many beneficiaries.

Add charity to your estate plan. Your will is the last chance you have to pass on more than money to your heirs, shape your legacy, and help create a better world after you’re gone.

Evaluate and change.Many people donate to the same charities year after year without learning whether any real progress has been made towards achieving their desired outcomes. Evaluation of your strategy and a willingness to change direction are essential.

Start now! Your community, nation and world need you today. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll see results in your life and in the lives of others.

For many people, philanthropy runs on the fumes of their lives, rather than being part of the engine. Following these steps to effective philanthropy will not only help you achieve better outcomes for the causes or organizations you care about, it will help you find the joy, meaning and satisfaction of philanthropy.

Women of the Baby Boom (born between 1946 and 1964) and older generations give more to charity than their male counterparts and are more likely to give, when education, income and other factors affecting giving are equal, a new study from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University finds. The study reveals this gender disparity in giving “even though women, in general, earn less than men, have less money in retirement, and outlive their spouses.”

At all income levels, and regardless of the share of their permanent income that they give, Boomer and older women give 89 percent more to charity than their male counterparts. Among those who are in the top 25 percent of permanent income, Boomer and older women give 156 percent more than similarly situated men.

“Our previous research has found that women tend to be more altruistic than men and that their giving frequently is motivated by the desire to make a difference in peoples’ lives,” according to Debra J. Mesch, Ph.D., director of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute. “Additionally, women’s strong networks may keep them more connected to both the needs of others and to opportunities to give.”

Judith Rodin, Ph.D., President of the Rockefeller Foundation, stated that in order to change the world, “the single most important thing we can do is unleash the full power of half the people on the planet – women.”

Women are flexing their individual and collective muscles, searching for deeper, sustainable solutions to pressing problems, giving generously, thoughtfully and strategically, and achieving greater outcomes with philanthropy than ever before.

There’s a new resource for the millions of Americans who want to respond to a disaster like Hurricane Sandy but don’t know where or to whom to give.

The concern is legitimate because although there are well-established and time-proven organizations like the American Red Cross, many other organizations requesting support for disaster relief are unknown to the potential donor. Moreover, reports of waste and sometimes even fraud in disaster relief agencies cause donors to be wary.

“Living in a disaster-prone area, we have been forced to develop an expertise steeped in proactive disaster philanthropy to assist our own communities in recovery,” said Center for Disaster Philanthropy Chairman Lori J. Bertman of Baton Rouge. “We created CDP in order to help others who have suffered disasters worldwide address these events in a more effective, coordinated, and strategic manner.”

A new report by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, issued in cooperation with The Conference Board, reveals important new information about the status of corporate philanthropy in the U.S. Examining 2011 data from 214 companies, including 62 of the top 100 companies in the Fortune 500, revealed more than $19.9 billion in cash and product giving.

Other principal findings included

• Median total giving by corporations in the sample was $21.02 million

• 60% of companies gave more in 2011 than in 2009

• 83% of companies offered at least one matching gift program

• 85% of companies had a formal domestic employee volunteer program; 47% had a formal international volunteer program

• 82% of companies reported having a corporate foundation

• 46% of total giving was through direct cash

• Both education (K-12) and disaster relief saw increases in giving

• Health, education, and community and economic development were top priorities for the typical company

• While 40% of companies expect giving to rise in 2012, very few expect it to rise more than 10%

Charles Moore, CECP Executive Director, said, “Our analysis this year shows that companies are becoming more focused about their giving: from larger grants to a smaller number of organizations; to giving where they have community connections; to using the skills and expertise of the business to build their community engagement.

Business is personal. And it impacts nearly every aspect of our daily lives. From keeping a household budget to planning for retirement, to getting (and keeping) a job or just putting up with annoying guy in the next cubicle — we've got a lot on our minds, and Personal Interest wants to help you sort it all out. We're bringing together the Denver Post $mart Editor with variety of experts from the local business community. We've asked them to offer tips, advice and general observations aimed at making the business of everyday life a bit easier to manager. Note: The bloggers were selected for their expertise, but their opinions are solely their own. While many operate their own businesses or consulting firms, we are not endorsing or advocating their businesses.